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College News
3 December 2004
New interactive collaboration on pain, depression, anxiety and positive outlook
Royal Holloway psychologists are launching an innovative new website
that aims to measure and deepen our understanding of depression, anxiety
and positive outlook among people who suffer from pain. The site also
aims to encourage and widen debate on the subject of pain among psychologists
and healthcare professionals.
Depression and anxiety experienced alongside pain can affect long-term prognosis and levels of disability, while having a positive outlook can affect the course and experience of specific diseases. A research team, led by Dr Tamar Pincus, Reader in Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, is working on a project to examine the relationship between depression, anxiety, positive outlook and pain, using a more accurate measuring scale than previous studies in this field.
Based on the data of 900 patients from a Chronic Pain Management Centre, the research team have devised a short web-based questionnaire - the Depression, Anxiety and Positive Outlook Scale (DAPOS) - which focuses solely on mental and not somatic factors in relation to pain. For example, sleep disturbance has previously been measured among patients suffering from chronic pain; however disrupted sleep can be attributed to both pain-related and depressive factors. The DAPOS separates these factors, measuring only the affective component of depression, and therefore aims to deepen understanding of the link between pain and depression. The original work on the questionnaire was published this year in the prestigious journal, Pain. The team are now inviting researchers from across the world to continue to develop and use the new questionnaire through an interactive website, the dapos.org.
Working alongside Dr Pincus are Dr Amanda Williams, Reader in Clinical Health Psychology from University College, London, and Osteopath and Senior Research Fellow Steven Vogel, from The British School of Osteopathy in London. The project has been funded by the charity BackCare*. The website launch will take place at 4.00 pm on 14 December at Royal Holloway's premises in Bedford Square, London. Contact t.pincus@rhul.ac.uk for further details.
Dr Pincus has been researching psychological factors in relation to pain since 1990. Her research combines epidemiological approaches, quantitative methods and qualitative designs. In particular, she has been interested in how people with pain and people treating pain think and feel about pain, and how these thoughts and beliefs affect their behaviour. She has been lecturing at Royal Holloway, University of London since 1998, having completed a PhD and post-doctoral post at University College, London, and a Masters in Epidemiology from Cambridge University.
ENDS
For press information
contact Royal Holloway, University of London, Press Office:
Christine Long
Press & PR Officer
01784 443967, christine.long@rhul.ac.uk
Vicky Cousins
Assistant Press & Communications Officer
01784 414480, victoria.cousins@rhul.ac.uk
Editor's Notes
The DAPOS is not a diagnostic measure, and underlying variables have been assumed to be continuous in their distribution, consistent with a normal rather than psychopathological model of pain.
*BackCare, the charity
for healthier backs, aims to be a source of independent, evidence based-information
about the causes, treatments and management of back pain. Through education
and information, publications, a telephone helpline, local branches,
and by funding research, BackCare
promotes best practice in the diagnosis, treatment and management of
disorders of the spine. Visit www.backcare.org.uk/
for further details.
